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Callout for bold ideas for young people

S4C welcomes ideas for a multimedia project appealing to young people ages 13-16. The successful ideas will be part of a package that we'll present as an application for the Contestable Fund. If you're a scriptwriter or a production company we invite you to present ambitious and original ideas that work on all the digital platforms and social media where young people live. We have a particular interest in scripted formats / online drama, a series of short episodes on social media and also various supplementary content based the strong characters and bold ideas of the brand. "Skam" (Shame) NRK Norway and "The Class" DK Ultra Denmark are successful examples of this type of content .

Background

In December 2017 the UK's Culture Secretary Karen Bradley announced that the government would establish a new fund of £60m for original content for children. S4C is keen to develop a special project with a potential to take advantage of this new funding. Currently there's a shortage of Welsh language content for young people in their teens – Stwnsh targets children up to 13 and Hansh targets young people aged 16-34. The intention is to develop an original format in order to make an application for the Contestable Fund when more information is published in the summer of 2018. Please find information on the fund here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/60-million-boos....

The Audience

We'll be looking for the strong characters, bold stories, humour and language that suit this specific demographic age range, 13-16. Most of this target audience will be educated through the medium of Welsh, but not all. The ideas will reflect contemporary Wales in terms of disability and ethnic background. Please note that the most successful formats of this kind work closely with the audience to develop stories and content that's bang up-to-date and relevant to their lives. Digital and social media have been an integral part of this demographic for many years. They can't remember a time without YouTube or Facebook and they're totally at ease going from one platform to the next 'talking' to their friends. They don't watch a lot of television, almost everything they watch is on demand and the first platforms they will go to look for content is Netflix and YouTube. They would have heard about content through their friends or lists from other young people on the internet. Teens will only share content that reflects well upon them.

This is an exciting opportunity for young scriptwriters and production companies to develop a new format with us. We hope that we can offer training opportunities within the project to develop young new talent as part of the project. We would like you to present your ideas briefly – no more than 2 sides of A4 with an outline of the story, how it works over all platforms and the key talent to realise the vision.

Please note that a development fund is available for the successful idea. The budget for this commission depends on the success of the application for the Contestable Fund. S4C reserves the right not to commission any of the ideas submitted